Vapoura Rum has partnered with The Mandrake to turn one of London’s most atmospheric hotels into a six-track vinyl EP.
The After Stories: Vol. 1 is the first instalment in a new series inviting producers to translate culturally significant venues into music. For its debut, Manchester-based CARALUS and London DJ and music director Daniel Sehnawi were asked to spend time inside The Mandrake, absorb its spaces and capture them in sound.
The result moves through the Fitzrovia hotel like a night unfolding. Portal reflects the shift from the city streets into The Mandrake’s blacked-out entrance, while Waeska channels the darker, more euphoric energy of its ethnobotanical bar.
YOPO takes inspiration from the hotel’s Eastern Mediterranean restaurant, before Jurema moves outside to the hanging garden, where jasmine, passionflower and open air shape its earthy rhythms. Lava Tory offers the record’s most playful moment, inspired by the hotel’s statement mirrors, artwork and famously social lower-ground washrooms. Masharari closes in the Masha Hari Theatre, home to The Mandrake’s late-night events, with rolling basslines and heavy percussion.
Pressed at The Vinyl Factory, the EP has been released as a limited-edition collectable, with one copy permanently framed inside the hotel.
The collaboration also extends to the bar. Throughout the summer, The Mandrake is serving three bespoke Vapoura cocktails across its venues.
At Waeska Bar, Angel Sage combines Chapter One with orange and red sage soda, while Velvet Cocoon pairs the spiced rum with coconut oil and a watermelon and mango cordial. At YOPO Zaytoun, Sacred Bean blends amaretto, sweet potato shochu and ube with white chocolate and tonka cream.
Founded in 2024 by Olly Barkley and Ed Jackson, Vapoura produces its English rum entirely in Cornwall. Chapter One is a bourbon-cask-finished spiced rum with notes of blood orange, cardamom, vanilla and ginger, while Chapter Two is aged in Pedro Ximénez casks, giving it richer notes of caramel, raisin, tobacco and chocolate.
